Gone Away ~ The journal of Clive Allen in America

Whistler
18/01/2005
(This is one of a series of articles I wrote dealing with memories of an African childhood. To read the first of these, click here)The boy emerged from the trees moments after the red dog. He stood for a while, taking in the soft heat of the open, the long grass concealing the dry gulch before the railway line a hundred yards ahead. The dog was already up there, trotting along the lines and then diving off into the grass on the other side, after a rabbit perhaps. In that direction lay the river but the boy did not move yet. Instead he waited, the thought of tricking the dog by taking a different route flitting through his mind.

They did this often, the boy and the dog, taking mutual pleasure in the frantic games of hide and seek that resulted. The dog understood the game perfectly, pretending to be too panicked by the disappearance to use his natural advantage, his sense of smell, to find the boy immediately. Instead, he would chase up and down with head held high, enjoying the desperate race to find his master, bounding up at times to see above the grass. From a distance the boy would call and then, as the dog came hurrying back in his direction, he would crouch down and go quiet again.

Sometimes the game would go on for a good half hour but always, in the end, the dog would get too close and the boy would be forced to break cover. Then would come the joyful moment of discovery, the dog leaping around his master, great bull terrier grin splitting his face from ear to ear, and the boy laughing and running in play.

Yes, this would be a good opportunity to hide, somewhere in the gulch maybe, while the dog was distracted. The boy took a step forward and then froze.

A piercing whistle split the silence of the hot African afternoon.

It came from the field on the boy's right, the field where he and the dog rarely went, for there was little to see there but grass. Once the boy had heard the distinctive "chink chink chink" of guinea fowl in that field and had crept through the long grass for an hour, looking for them. Of course, he saw nothing; guinea fowl play hide and seek very well too.

The boy turned and looked for the source of the whistle but could see nothing. Then it came again, long and sharp, like a man whistling to attract attention. And now the boy saw him.

There was a man standing off in the middle of the field, only his head and shoulders visible above the grass. The boy wondered why the man was whistling at him. But he did not move towards the man, unsure in that moment that it was his attention the man was trying to attract. Perhaps there was someone else nearby that the man could see.

Yet the man seemed to be looking directly at him. And, when the whistle cut the dry air a third time, the boy finally began to walk towards him.

It was unusual to see anyone out here in the open veld behind the boy's home. But he was not afraid, aware that Rufus, the red dog, would have heard the whistle and would be racing now at full tilt towards the sound. The boy pushed his way through the grass, watching the man as he approached.

There was something slightly odd about the set of the man's shoulders. And he made no move to come towards the boy. He had stopped whistling now and was just watching as the boy came closer.

Then, as the boy came to within a few yards of the man, it happened. Suddenly the vision of a man moved and melted into the reality of an antelope turning sideways. It turned and made off, unhurried, and the boy, surprised and shocked at the sudden transformation, saw the telltale white circle around the animal's tail.

Waterbuck!

In a moment the buck had disappeared into the long grass but the boy was exultant. He had seen a waterbuck! That animal you never see for it is shy and adept at staying perfectly still, blending into its surroundings. He had read of it, the distinctive circle of white on its rump and the strange humanlike whistle of its call.

But nothing had prepared him for the actual sighting or for the way in which his eyes had deceived him into believing the buck's whistle. This, too the boy had read; that waterbuck are often mistaken for men, for they will stand face on to the watcher, only head and shoulders visible above the reeds or grass. The boy stood immobile, lost in the moment, the encounter.

Then the dog arrived, tearing through the grass in haste and bounding with joy at sight of the boy.

The magic of that moment was broken but would live forever in the boy's memory. He had seen a waterbuck; no, for an instant, he had been one with a waterbuck.

Mad
I too have seen a waterbuck in the wild, reading your description I realise I must have been lucky to see it. It was in a deep dark valley in the fynbos of South Africa's coast. As I walked along a path beneath the trees I startled on a waterbuck who went crashing up a little stream bed, flashing his white circle as he went. That was cool. Date Added: 18/01/2005

Gone Away
Somehow it is the lesser known animals of Africa that have made the deepest impression on me, Mad. Lions are ten a penny and fly and flea bitten as well, wildebeest and zebra are uninteresting. This waterbuck was a joy to see, as were the hyena we chanced upon, slouching his way homeward in the early light of dawn, the mere cough of a leopard, unseen but prowling beneath your bedroom window, a monitor lizard frozen for a moment on a bridge above a stream. And I cannot blog upon the one sable I have seen - how to convey the grandeur and the feeling of having been honored by even the sight of that rare but most regal of antelope? Date Added: 18/01/2005

Josh
We North Americans Have a handful of animals like that. ;-) Nothing as mystical as a waterbuck perhaps, but if I were pressed to pick an animal I have never seen, but would love to come across. . . It would most certainly be the blackfooted ferret. I spent 3 days in and around Badlands National Park hoping for a glimpse of the rascals; but as the spend most of thier time underground, it was not to be. Date Added: 18/01/2005

Gone Away
It's the special-ness of seeing something hardly anyone else has seen, I think. For example, most people in Africa have heard a leopard cough at night (although some may have thought it was a human cough - they sound exactly the same, a dry, deep cough), but very, very few have actually seen one in the wild. In Britain it was Mad who gave us a sight of that very rare snake, the adder, by simple expedient of almost standing on it when we visited Dartmoor on vacation. Date Added: 18/01/2005

Hannah
Totally cool. Reminds me of the first time I saw a cardinal (our state bird). Very poignant, and very well told. Date Added: 18/01/2005

I saw a cougar once, sitting high up on a boulder. Freaky sight, seeing reclusive animals. But now, Living in what's called the Fox Valley here, one might think....but nooo. No foxes to be seen.

Reckon I should blog abt the firefly mistook for a human? Date Added: 18/01/2005

Way
Darn. Being cutesey, I forgot why I stopped by...a fine-told tale, Gone Away. Sniff out a few more of these nuggets, will ya? Date Added: 18/01/2005

Ned
A wonderful tale, told wonderfully. When I was young, the most colorful bird we had was a bluejay, but one year some cardinals started nesting in a tree by the house. It was a thrill to see something so rarely seen there. Now there are a pair of birds of a somewhat regal posture that I cannot identify but some have told me that from the description might be nightingales. The sad part to the story is that all these creatures heretofore unseen, were living unobtrusively in wooded areas now being developed for human habitations. A grand thing to see so much wildlife in your backyard, a sad thing to realize they have no where else to go. Date Added: 18/01/2005

Gone Away
Way, life would not be the same without your cutesy comments - they keep my feet on the ground. Keep 'em coming (in between your own own eloquent memories, of course). I must also thank you for showing me that there are things that may appear ordinary to us in our own lives that yet are worthy of a blog, since they have a quality akin to dreamtime when viewed from afar. It is true what my last sentence states: I will never forget that waterbuck.

And I will keep them coming, as long as Galveston requires more stewing until it is ready... Date Added: 19/01/2005

Gone Away
Ned: I did not realize that I was hitting a common nerve when I attempted this waterbuck story. The waterbuck is an unregarded animal in Africa, where there are elephants and lions and rhinos that grab the headlines with their dramatic appearance and oft-trumpeted dalliances with extinction. Yet the waterbuck that drew my attention so gallantly is the memory that I treasure, along with my one sighting of a sable, above all others. I am somewhat ashamed that, although I reacted with joy at the sight of cardinals in Illinois (since they were, to me, an American icon; an unquestionable proof that I was, indeed, in America), I had no idea that I was being honored with something that had become rare.

And nightingales! I do not even know if I have heard them, often having heard birdsong at night in England and wondering if what I heard was that fabled music. Certainly, I have never seen them.

I do confess, however, to having a regard for those animals that have suffered the encroachment of human habitation, thought about it, and found a way to live with it, even turn to it to their own advantage. Who can despise the sparrow, the seagull, the crow and even the fox that have learned to adapt to our re=creation of the environment and prosper? Date Added: 19/01/2005

Gone Away
Galveston will stew for the moment, I can promise you that, Way. But pigeons deserve our respect in one thing at least (and they share this with chickens). How, we may ask, in the name of thunderation, how, did any animal of so tiny a brain and stupidity of habit manage to survive in the wild before humanity came along? Date Added: 19/01/2005

keef
Cool man....i like the tale and wish id been there.
I was once with a girl who saw a purple octopus with green spots in the middle of a road in loughboro.....but thats a different story, and if i hadnt seen it many times before she would have been hit by the car....still you pays yer money and all that.
I cant agree with the pigeons and respect thing, the only thing a pigeon deserves travels in excess of 100 mph from a smoking barrel. The only reason the critter survived before we came along is simply that other birds sh1t seeds! Date Added: 19/01/2005

keef
and Mad, you need to fix the nav bar on the right. when you are in a thread....like this and reading comments. If you want to return to the main topic...ie...gone away you have to nav out and back into the whole thread....sheesh you slacker anyone would think you work for a livin nowadays. Date Added: 19/01/2005

Mad
That's why there's a "Back to the main blog" link Keef... it returns you strangely enough to the main blog :> Date Added: 19/01/2005

One of my sisters claimed seeing a dead kangaroo on a Texas highway once, but you know Texans. A purple and green octupus is much more colorful. Date Added: 19/01/2005

Gone Away
The dead kangaroo may be true; attempts have been made to farm them at various times and places. But I didn't know roadkill counted. If it does, then I should tell you about the time I saw a dead diplodocus on a dirt road in Mozambique... Date Added: 19/01/2005

Way
Do tell. A western North American diplo, moz likely eh. Date Added: 19/01/2005

keef
Im sick of chicken. Im in Singapore at the mo and the whole place is gearing up for chinese new year. Everywhere i go there are 10-15ft tall roosters. Its the year of the golden rooster for those of you still unaware.....its like living in the kellogs theme park Date Added: 20/01/2005

Way
Grab me a breast, Keef; I love the chicken. Date Added: 20/01/2005

Gone Away
Giant chickens hmmm... I could go with the Busch-footed armadillo; I was even prepared to accept the purple octopus. But giant chickens? 10-15ft tall? Oh come on now, Keef. :< Date Added: 20/01/2005

Gone Away
Careful what you wish for, Way. A breast from a 10-15ft tall chicken? That could kill a man... Date Added: 20/01/2005

Way
My goal is, afterall, to die happy. (how many comments can this thing hold, anyhoo?)

Oh, another blog just hit the air, btw. Date Added: 20/01/2005

Gone Away
As far as I know, the comments system is unlimited. But I must hurry off to read another blog. Ecuse me a moment, won't you? ;) Date Added: 20/01/2005

Way
Man, I'd never ecuse you of nothing shy of good righting. Date Added: 20/01/2005

Gone Away
Ahem. That was supposed to be "excuse". *blushes at being caught in a typo but opts to take the mis-spelling of "write" as deliberate* :D Date Added: 20/01/2005

Way
I should complain to Mad that most all blogs cepting this one (as magnificent as it stands, heads above the fray) have a way of reading commentor's blogs, but that would seem ungenerous, would it not? Date Added: 20/01/2005

Gone Away
Not ungenerous at all, Way; it is a valid comment after all. I have worried about this myself and discussed the problem with Mad. For the moment and until we can get around to devising a system for it, I would refer you to the Links item in the navigation bar over there > > > > >, on the left. You might be agreeably surprised to find what lies in there. ;) Our current thinking is that we will introduce a page of "Gone's Recommended Links" or some such thing, although it would also be good to have the names of commenters, um commentors, no, those who comment ( :D ) becoming links to their blogs. Date Added: 20/01/2005

Way
Now that's the ticket. S'wonderful. I'll check it after we get home. BTW, just noticed a weird glitch...after hitting an apostrophe, I get yanked to the bottom where I find I'm typing in a small red bar/box. Um, add slashes, too. Heeyyy, Maaad! Date Added: 20/01/2005

Gone Away
Now that's weird. Hmmm, doesn't work for me, Way. Let's hope it was just a temporary glitch. Date Added: 21/01/2005

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